Neglected!!

Yes, the title says it all! This blog has been very neglected of late! I'm not sure how many people keep up with it or read it anymore, facebook seems to have taken over as preferred source of social media for so many!

Anyway, ramblings aside, the last months have been busy to say the least! A house sold and bought, a move from south to north, Larry's uni graduation, Christmas, camping, a birthday, the start of 2013, starting a new job (albeit, one that started with PAID holidays), a wedding anniversary, a visit to our family and friends down south. I think there might even have been 2 birthdays since the last post, Larry's at the end of November, Eleanor's at the end of December! Now that boxes are unpacked and life has settled down a bit, I have time to blog and do some of the things I enjoy!

Moving house is something we hope not to do for a very looooooong time!! While things moved quickly and easily to start with (ie accepting and making offers), things went downhill pretty quickly from there! What was meant to be a (smooth) 30 day process (seeing us move early December) soon turned into a nightmare of 60 something days, moving nearly 2 weeks later than originally planned. Settlement finally occurred after the 60 days and after having to 'rent' the house we sold and the house we bought for several weeks. Everything that could go wrong went wrong! But we had a fabulous conveyancer working for us, who made things a little easier to deal with (she was even laying in bed at night trying to think of ways to help us)! There was a wonderful group of very generous people who gave their time and effort to help us move all our belongings! There are many others who helped and supported us in other ways. To all of you, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We are blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives! I'll mention the ones I can remember (in hope they might see this blog one day) - Eg, Ben, Mum and Dad P, Patrick, Suzi, Rob G (and Connor), Jeremy DR (and Claudia), Bosveld's (Ashley, Owen, Brian and Ruth), Mr Ashby, Jess and John, Toby - I know I've forgotten some people, for which I apologise as your help was also much appreciated!! We hope to thank all these wonderful people properly in the near future when we hold our house warming party!

Moving along.....Shortly after we moved we celebrated Christmas with our family, made more memorable this year by having so many of the Groenewold clan present for the Boxing Day BBQ. The following day we made our way to the east coast to spend a week and a half camping in the bush, by the beach.

While camping this little miss celebrated her first birthday (camping style, complete with cake, candles and presents). She has brought such joy into our lives (all our children do) and we thank God each day for entrusting her into our care. We hope that this is the first of many birthdays we will celebrate with her!

Birthday girl (excuse the pj's)!

Opening presents!

Camping style birthday cake!

(it's was rather warm and the icing very soft so the smarties all fell off, eventually)

Singing happy birthday

(excuse the dishes in the background and the awful photo of me)! 

 Cake is finger-licking good!!

(we used plain sponges, philadelphia cream cheese icing - 

that stuff is soooooo good - and the lollies to decorate)

She is constantly keeping us entertained with her cheeky antics! She's such a little monkey, albeit a very determined one! Q and S beware, this little girl has a temper!! She has been bum shuffling everywhere for months now, is able to pull herself up onto her knees, can stand holding onto furniture unaided, has just cut her 5th toothy peg, has hair long enough to put a pig tail in (I loathe hair 'fountains' though) and has just decided that crawling on all fours is lots of fun but not quick enough if you need to get somewhere in a hurry!

Larry started his new job (hence the move) on Jan 1st, while we were camping. He's been at school slogging it out in the preparation/planning aspect of teaching for the last few weeks now. School starts next Monday (Feb 4th).

Q will also start kindy next Monday! How scary and exciting! 4 (and a bit) years have flown by! He is desperate to go to school, he's been asking to go with Larry on the days Larry goes in to do his planning! Bring on Monday (I'm looking forward to the change at home, hopefully less fighting and some quieter days especially as S and E still both nap in the afternoon). I will post a photo of him on his first day of school!

We spent the Australia Day long weekend in Hobart! It will be the last chance we had to get to Hobart before school starts. Traveling on a Sunday night wont really be possible seeing as Q will have a full day of School on Monday!

We are looking forward to the arrival of Dad and Mum H, who will be in the state for 2 months helping/supporting the Launceston congregation (and no, they aren't staying with us even though they would be most welcome)! The arrive on Sebastian's birthday, just is time (DV) to still help celebrate it with us!

Well, I think I have probably bored you all to death! Well done if you made it to the end! I now have the job of going back to add a few (not many) photos and the I need to get back to the kitchen and stew the rest of the greengages! I will add a photo of todays 'production' in the kitchen.

Jam - (R to L) raspberry, greengage, apricot! only the greengage jam was made today, the rest was made a week or so ago! Greengages from Mum and Dad's trees, raspberries and apricots from our garden! Hoping there will be nectarine and blackberry (both from our garden) to come!